Sorry, Craig, it's really a vent, I'm very intrigued by human interaction and how a single, perceived notion can move through a crowd like a plague.

Remember in elementary school when the teacher would tell one student a very short story and ask him/her to whisper it to the next, and so on down the line?

The teacher may have said, "Johnny skinned his knee, but his mom fixed it up with a bandaid and gave him some ice cream."

Then, at the end of 20-25 students' reporting the same story, it comes out like this, "Johnny's leg got cut off by an axe maniac driving an ice cream truck and his mom bought the truck for him, and she is going to bring it to school so we can all have some too. We're even gonna have a band concert. I want chocolate."

The problem most likely began with the first retelling and it snowballed from there.

My rant was inspired by an actual event, but it's really just about how people's own perceptions and presumptions can quickly and irrevocably change a single, simple concept. "To poison the pot."

In this particular case, I presented a simple idea to a group with an open invitation for all to participate in observing a trivial, potentially ongoing event. The idea was welcomed with open arms. Quite to my surprise, the individual, "Damian", found a perceived injustice in a simple idea and proceeded to create an entirely unrelated frenzy among the group, thus, putting a negative spin on, and very much changing what was meant to be a very positive, uplifting, and fun experience for everyone.

While I am saddened by the destruction of its simplicity, I am completely fascinated by the interaction surrounding it.

I hope this helps to make it clearer. Taffy's analogy of following the "blood trail" is her humorous way of saying that the original idea was just to see what would happen within the group. I guess I got a lot more than I bargained for!